Kindgo
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The 11-year-old told city police that his father beat him when he refused. Both his parents were arrested.
By Barbara Boyer
Philadelphia Inquirer
An 11-year-old West Philadelphia boy who says he was beaten with a belt when he refused to sell drugs for his father turned to police to escape the abuse.
By yesterday, the boy had been taken away from his parents, who were in custody on drug charges.
On Tuesday afternoon, the boy - whose name was not released - went to the 16th Police District station at 39th Street and Lancaster Avenue in the Mantua section of West Philadelphia to report what he had been going through for several months, police said.
His father, the boy told police, demanded that he hold money and drugs while both peddled marijuana and crack cocaine. At least once, authorities said, the boy had to hold onto a loaded handgun. The boy said his father had told him that police would not search him because of his age.
And if the boy refused, or made mistakes while selling drugs, his father would beat him with a belt or roll the belt in his fist and punch him, Officer William Brophy of the Special Victims Unit said the boy told police.
The boy's story shocked even veteran investigators who often see children caught in the city's drug trade at a young age.
"I'm on the job a long time, and you're used to dealing with street-corner thugs, and sometimes you wonder how they get to be that way," said Narcotics Capt. David Testa.
"Sometimes you think you've seen it all," Testa said. "But something blows up in this young man and made him want to stop living this life and get things straightened out. Fortunately, he came forward."
After hearing the boy's story, police immediately launched an investigation.
Authorities said the boy told police where his father - Edward Sheed, 37, a recent parolee - stored the drugs, money and guns. And the boy took police to the 2700 block of Stiles Street in North Philadelphia and pointed out his father while he was allegedly selling drugs.
Police said they used a confidential informant to purchase drugs from Sheed on Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, authorities obtained two search warrants. They served one in the 500 block of North 32d Street, where the boy lived with his mother, Rhonda Overton, 34. Police served the other warrant in the 3200 block of Wallace Street, where Sheed allegedly stored some of his stash.
The searches yielded 63 packets of marijuana, a packet of crack, $3,476, other drugs, and at least two handguns, a .22-caliber and a .44-caliber Magnum.
Both parents were jailed on drug charges. Sheed also was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
"At this stage in this young man's life, he obviously has a sense of what is right or wrong," said Narcotics Inspector Joseph Sullivan.
The father, previously jailed for robbery, was paroled last year and living in a halfway house, according to police. He spent time with his son during weekend furloughs.
"The boy was at great risk," Sullivan said. "He was holding drugs and money and placed at risk of being robbed or just caught in the middle of those selling and buying drugs."
The boy, the only child in the house, was removed from the home by the Department of Human Services and placed with a relative of his half-siblings'.
"He's in a safe environment and he's doing well," said department spokeswoman Liza Rodriguez.
Frank Cervone, director of the Support Center for Child Advocates, said that children usually know the difference between right and wrong, but that it's difficult to break through the loyalty they can feel toward family.
"The parents have demonstrated that they don't want a son, they want a pawn, and that's the standard for terminating parental rights," Cervone said. "This child, this young man, needs a new family, one that will respect him and let him be a boy."
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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